Thursday, January 27, 2011

Retail Sales plunge

The first estimates of the December Retail Sales Index have just been released by the CSO. The seasonally adjusted series show that December was not a good month for retailers. Here is the index excluding motor trades which make up 8.1% of the December index.

The December falls were the steepest seen since October 2009 and the annual rate of change has once again become firmly rooted in negative territory. Unless there is a major turnaround in the next few months this annual comparison will remain negative as retail sales experience a short-lived “turning the corner” bounce in the first four months of 2010. When compared to these the annual drops in the early months of 2011 could be of the order of 5% or more.

Finally, the monthly changes show that for the volume index December recorded a greater drop than anything over the previous two years. The value index fell but not by the same amount. Is frugality fatigue hitting consumers?